black and white ✰ g.w.

CHAPTER TWO

Olivia's two best friends, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, arrived at the Village the day before the Cup. They spent that day playing Quidditch with Oliver, Ben, Faustus, Fraser, and Duncan in the family's own makeshift pitch. They might've played until sundown if Ben, the most serious and rule-abiding of all of the Wood children besides maybe his older sister Sarah, hadn't told them that they needed to go inside and get ready for bed, seeing as they would have to get up early the next morning. This resulted in an argument between him, Oliver, Angelina, Fraser, and Duncan that was only broken up when the adults began to come home from work. David and Henry walked over when they heard the yelling and sided with Ben, sending everyone to their respective houses.

"I see Ben hasn't changed a bit," said Alicia as the girls changed into their pajamas in Olivia's bedroom.

"No, he hasn't," Olivia agreed, sighing.

"Isn't he of age now? You would think he would loosen up a bit," said Angelina.

"Yes, but he's been made Head Boy and it's gone to his head."

"That reminds me... I miss Fred."

"How does Ben being Head Boy remind you that you miss Fred Weasley? I don't get it."

"Oh, just you wait until you like someone. Then you'll get it."

"Ooh, speaking of liking someone," Alicia said. "Is Faustus single?"

"Obviously," Olivia answered.

"Alicia, you're not seriously considering dating a Slytherin?" Angelina asked.

"Why not? Faustus is... different," Alicia said, her voice quiet as if she wasn't confident in what she was saying.

Angelina turned to Olivia. "Is that true?"

"No, not really," Olivia answered dismissively. "I mean, if you're asking if he's anything like Professor Snape, he's not, but he is a Slytherin through and through. In fact, he gets on with Snape quite well."

"Okay, changing the subject," said Alicia. "Do you both have your dress robes?"

"Am I human?" Angelina asked.

"I don't know, that's questionable."

"Mine are in my school trunk," Olivia said. "Feel free to look, but I'm going to bed. Goodnight." And with that, she shut off the light in the room.

Catrina, Olivia's mother, woke the girls up before sunrise as promised. They complained but got up and got dressed anyway. Knowing it was going to be chilly when they set out, Olivia pulled on a pair of jeans she hadn't worn in a very long time, along with a red blouse.

"I hate wearing pants," she commented as she looked in the mirror, genuinely uncomfortable. She preferred to wear sundresses and skirts and avoided wearing pants or even shorts most of the time.

When they got downstairs to the dining room, there were three plates of breakfast waiting for them. Catrina had already sat down and begun to eat.

"Where's Oliver?" Olivia asked as she sat down at the table. Next to her, Alicia had dug into her breakfast without hesitation.

"He's Apparating, so he's allowed to sleep in," Catrina answered.

"Lucky," Angelina muttered. "I'm so close to being 17. It's not fair."

The four of them finished their breakfast, went back upstairs to fetch their bags, and then went outside. Those who would be traveling to the match by Portkey were already waiting outside of David and Helena's house. Mostly everyone was there except for Sarah, Ben, Oliver, Blair, Abigail, and Elizabeth, none of whom had underage children to look after.

Before setting off, they took their brooms from the broom shed. Fraser and Duncan absolutely dreaded the idea of walking the whole way, so they were allowed to ride their brooms the majority of the way, though they were ordered to stay low to the ground and to not fly too far away from everyone else.

They were walking to meet up with Natalia, the only living child of David and Helena's who did not agree to live with them, and her husband and two daughters. While they didn't always get along with their family, Natalia and Aaron stayed in touch with them nevertheless. They always made sure to visit the Village with their daughters, Evelyn and Scarlett, at least once every holiday; the Quidditch World Cup would count as this year's summer holiday visit.

After walking for a whole two hours, they finally saw the Portkey, which was a Muggle newspaper. However, they had to wait another ten minutes for the Cabot's to show up. At this point, they were about to miss the time at which the Portkey would transport them to the Cup and had to delay their greetings and get situated. As soon as the last person put their hand on the newspaper, which happened to be Jade's two-year-old son Gregory, they were transported. It was not a pleasant feeling at all and when they finally let go and fell to the ground, the youngest children, Scarlett and Gregory, were crying.

Once the children were calm, David had them checked in and led the way through the already thick crowd to a campsite towards the back. A plaque on a stick read "Wood" and behind it were two large tents. They weren't fancy, but they were better than the tents in the campsite next to them, which just so happened to belong to the Weasleys (Angelina and Evelyn were very excited about this). Since they had all brought their brooms along and had nothing else to do until the match started that evening, they flew around on their broomsticks, visiting people they recognized. When Oliver arrived with the others, he joined in on this. They did this until the sun began to go down, at which point they went back to their campsites and waited for the gong.

[word count: 968]
[written: 5/3/20]
[published: 6/2/20]